Fewer asylum requests, especially from Latinos, are being granted as President-elect Donald Trump prepares to crack down on immigration.
The Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) at Syracuse University reported that October case-by-case court records, the most recent available, showed that asylum grant rates had declined to 35.8%, down sharply from above 50% seen earlier in the Biden administration.
According to TRAC, asylum grant rates had increased for most of fiscal year 2022 before dropping sharply as initiatives to accelerate asylum proceedings were introduced.
"Historically, asylum seekers have been much less successful when the time required to make their case is arbitrarily shortened with various forms of so-called 'rocket dockets,' " TRAC said in its report.
Rocket dockets are used by courts to speed up hearings, clearing a huge backlog of cases, Axios reported.
Fiscal year 2024 data shows that migrants from Eastern Europe and Asia – where many asylum seekers are fleeing war or socialism -- are more likely to be granted asylum than those from Central and South America, from where migrants often need more time to make their cases.
Venezuela (64.5%) and Cuba (51.6%) had the highest asylum grant rates of all Latin American countries, highlighting how those fleeing socialist regimes historically have had an easier path to asylum in the U.S.
While asylum seekers came from just about every country, there were more than 50 countries with at least 100 asylum decisions issued.
There were five countries with grant rates of less than 20%. These were the Dominican Republic (11.0%), Mexico (16.6%), Colombia (19.3%), Ecuador (19.7%) and Brazil (19.7%). Peru was only slightly higher with 20.6 percent granted asylum.
The asylum grant rate of 35.8% is the lowest since May 2021, during the early months of the Biden administration and when the U.S. was moving away from COVID-19 restrictions.
Asylum approval rates during the migrant crisis under President Joe Biden were highest in May 2022 and September 2023, peaking at over 50%.
For the 2024 fiscal year, immigration courts closed 900,000 immigration and asylum cases, the most cleared cases in a fiscal year, and 235,000 more than the previous year, TRAC reports.
Asylum seekers from Russia had the highest approval rate (85.4%) for nationalities with at least 2,000 asylum decisions, and China (76.6%) was second.
Charlie McCarthy ✉
Charlie McCarthy, a writer/editor at Newsmax, has nearly 40 years of experience covering news, sports, and politics.
Related Stories:
Rep. Hunt to Newsmax: Ending CBP One 'Big Time' Change
Tom Homan to Newsmax: Booting Migrants Is Crucial
© 2024 Newsmax. All rights reserved.